Vergil's Eclogues

Best remembered for his unfinished epic, the Aeneid, the poet Vergil was celebrated in his time both for the perfection of his art and for the centrality of his ideas to Roman culture. The Eclogues, his earliest confirmed work, were composed in part out of political considerations: when the Roman authorities threatened to seize his family's land, Vergil's appeal in the form of Eclogue IX won a stay. Eclogue I appears to be a thank-you for that favor. Barbara Hughes Fowler provides scholars ...